1. Field of the Invention
The object of the present invention is a hair extension applicator, of the kind used to lengthen and/or thicken head hairs by applying additional hair extensions, usually called hair extensions, to natural hair.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the art several kinds of additional hair extensions are known. Generally, they provide a quantity of joined additional hair, at a common proximal end, of a fixing element the nature thereof could be extremely variable.
In fact, fixing elements were described comprising adhesives sensible to pressure and/or heat, thermoplastic material, termomelting or termosetting materials and so on. Generally, the most widespread application techniques provide that a pressure be applied on the fixing element, in case together with heat or also ultrasound, for example, in order to activate adhesion of the fixing element. The pressure application is often followed by a handling of the fixing element with the purpose of verifying the adhesion success and the connection sizes inside the head hair, before the connection itself solidifies and it could not be modified.
To carry out these application techniques a wide use of pliers is made which, with proper changes, can apply pressure and heat, or pressure and ultrasounds, and so on, at the same time. The use of more and more perfect pliers allowed speeding up and making the application of additional hair extensions and the control of the connection sizes easier.
Examples of this kind of pliers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,642,010-A and EP 0 650 672 A1.
In the Italian patent application No. RM2001A000317 of 7 Jun. 2001 in the name of the same Applicant, a set of extensions approached one to the other and applicable in a single solution thanks to the use of an adhesive tape supporting the respective fixing elements is described.
The application occurs by applying pressure on all fixing elements at the same time by means of said adhesive tape which allows, apart from the multiple connections for all the extensions of the set, also a precise control of the sizes of the connections themselves and the use then of a lower quantity of thermoplastic substance which translates into a smaller connection, practically not perceptible to the touch.
In this example, the contemporary application of pressure on all the fixing elements of the extensions occurs by using pliers equipped with elongated pressing members, so as to encompass and squeeze all fixing elements with one single movement.
The pliers used so far in this kind of applications were not wholly satisfactory and they have limited the spread of the additional hair extensions, especially those of the kind arranged in series on an adhesive tape.
In fact, the known pliers, which carry out the applicator function of the above-mentioned extensions, are heavy devices, above all but not exclusively due to the heating means or to generate ultrasounds, difficult to handle with a constant precision along a continuous series of applications, prolonged in time as it may happen in a hairdresser's saloon working on several users.
Such handling difficulties, however, lengthen the application time, require the use of specialized personnel able to judge the connection success and increase then the costs of lengthening and thickening procedures.
Furthermore, in case a series of extensions is applied with a single pliers, the pressure applied on the fixing elements may be not uniform depending upon the shape of the pressing members but also upon the physical strength of the operator. This lack in uniformity may lead to the formation of imperfect connections which limit the quality of the lengthening or thickening.
In particular, it has been noted that the pressure application on the fixing elements of the extensions is not sensible to the thickness variation of extensions and fixing elements, with the consequence that, if the thickness is big, the applied pressure will be excessive and so on.